Dry September

To me Dry September was one of the most confusing short stories I've read this year. First of all, the story had dialogue, but no details just facts. I didn't pay attention at times, which made me have to re-read some parts of the story Secondly, it was had to decipher who was who. At first, I didn't know what Butch, Jack, or McLendon. Questions came up like who was talking at the time? Is she dead? Is he dead? Whose side is he on?
Lastly, I didn't understand why they did what they did. They spent half the time talking about who was right and wrong, instead of going out and trying to find evidence. Also, why did the story have parts? Why did it end how it did? It was sudden, and Once again, I found myself re-reading pages.

9/28/13:
-19 pages, 30 minutes
-20 pages, 30 minutes
-19 pages, 30 minutes
-30 minutes on short stories altogether

Plot of my story

My story is about how a man tells his story of how he became successful in life. Christopher Stephens grew up in the Thibodaux, Louisiana. Like every other kid, he had dreams and expectations. He always wanted to play in the MLB. His parents where farmers, so he grew up with plenty of room for a baseball field. When Christopher was old enough, he started to play in little leagues but didn’t perform to well. Christopher was the smallest and weakest on the team. After games he would get angry with himself for not hitting the ball past the pitcher’s mound. As he got older, and the competition got harder, he began to sit the bench. When he did have the opportunity, he failed again and again. 

This made Christopher loss his self-esteem, and get angry. He quit baseball in seventh grade and instead of crying about it, he went to the gym almost seven ours a day. He watched numerous people hit, and observed how they hit. After almost four years of the same thing, it was his second year into high school. It was a small school, so there were no tryouts. He sat the bench because he had one player in front of him. Luckily, Chris’s team made it to the playoffs, but the guy in front of Chris got hurt. Chris used his instincts on baseball, and helped bring their team to a championship.

My character

My name is Author Clarence Jr, but people call me Junior instead. My father always dreamed for me to become a football player when I grow up. I am six foot two, and my father says I am athletic, strong, and have a good future. With hard work and dedication, I can become any person I want to be. Do I really want to go to the gym and workout all the time?
That doesn't sound fun to me at all. I'd rather stay home and watch tv, maybe play a couple video games. My father did mention I was lazy. But really, that sounds boring. Don't get me wrong however, I do like to throw the football with my friends, or going enjoy the great outdoors. I just don't see fun in make yourself stronger or faster. Plus, I'm just a kid. Doing homework or running till you throw up isn't isn't adventurous.

Reading Response

The new book I am reading is called, The Berlin Boxing Club. This book is set during World War 2, and so far it is about a boy taking lessons from a boxing legend in Germany, Max Schmeling. The main character Karl, gets bullied by three boys, also known as Wolf Pack. The Wolf Pack torments Jews for their entertainment. Max is friends with Karl's dad, Sig, and makes a barter with Sig. Max wanted the last paintings by Grosz, for private boxing lessons with Karl.
That barter Max and Sig made, can be important in the long run, because Karl may be able to defend himself, or maybe even become a legend himself. I wonder if Max is interested in Karl, because MAx said Karl looks like a true boxer. I predict that KArl will not be a good boxer, because of who raised him and how he was raised. His parents are artists only, and their family is famous for that. At this point however, anything can happen in the story. The true question I want to know is what will happen next.

Saturday 9/21/13
Page 1 to Page 22 - 30 minutes
Page 23 to Page 42 - 30 minutes
Page 43 to Page 62 - 30 minutes
30 minutes reading short stories

eBooks

Our class is doing an ebook! Sure it sounds boring, but working as a team as a class to make the best ebook in the history of ebooks sounds pretty cool to me. The first thing I will do is make some changes in my narrative, and put some classmate names inside it. Hopefully I get the job of formatting or designing the pages, because I want people to see how creative our class can be.
Creativity never was one of my talents, but I always try to make things explode with color, and catch the audience's eyes, with my ideas. It may be a challenge but I'm willing to risk it for the biscuit. This ebook is representing our class and I hope it turns out well, and we all get good grades of course. Another things I might wanna do, is take pictures, and show the world what it's like at Episcopal and anywhere else.

I Once had a Dream

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., begins his speech by saying that black people are not free. Even though Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation long ago, but black people today, still live in hatred world were you will get judged no matter what you do or where you come from. In his speech he said all of God's children should be treated the same as everyone. Why would white people be treated the black people the same over the past years? I personally do not think it will ever stop. I think that it is insane that everyone has to be so judgmental in this world. That is why bad things happen left and right.
Martin Luther King Jr., and all of his supporters want the freedom now. Not today, tomorrow, or the next day. In his speech he mentions to his supporters, that it is unnecessary for violence. All he wants is to be treated like every other white person is treated. He is also saying that it is not that hard to ask for, considering we had a civil war and a law passed that states black people are free. No harm, just true freedom. Why does everyone have to see the negative things in people, or judge them by their looks, or where they come from? We all need another Martin Luther King Jr., to straighten up our perspective on things; especially hate.

Fishing Trip

My father and me were on our way to a fishing trip. It was my responsibility to bring bait, poles, and everything needed for a boat.

“Who’s ready to go fishing today?” my father exclaimed.

“Me!” I shouted back to him.

“Lets go through a checklist shall we? Do you have everything?” my father questioned.

I went through a quick checklist, and said, “We have everything! Lets get going!”

We hit the road, and after four long hours on the road, we arrived at our fishing spot. We caught only about five or six, but we still had a good time.

“That was fun!” my father said, “Should we do it again?” he asked.

“Yes we should!” I said proudly.

Reading Response 4

The Body of Christopher Creed has been a very interesting book to me. At the end of the book, Torey, the main character, is in a mental hospital. He finds out new information also. Justin Creed, Christopher’s little brother, said that the day Chris disappeared was when he and his mom were fighting about privacy. Also, Torey was able to look through anybody’s emails due to a website. He went through Chris’ email, asking people if they knew anything. The main response was that he thought Chris wasn’t dead, had treasure somewhere, and didn’t want to be bothered. It was a very vivid journey trying to find out what all happen, but the question still remains; Is Christopher Creed still alive?

The new book I am starting, No Safety in Numbers, is so far about a mysterious room in a parking garage. The room is used for heating, ventilation,  and air conditioning. Marco, found footprints that stopped right in front of the flashing machine with red lights. He called the cops and left the scene. Marco got to that scene because he was chased by rich kids, because he accidentally scratched one of their cars with his bike. He was trying to find a good place to hide, and ended up into the HVAC. The beginning, even though i am on page seventeen, can go a lot of different ways and take different plots. No telling what will ha[pen next in this mystery.

Reading:

I spent 1 hour trying to write my literacy narrative.

9/8/13=Page 233 to Page 248-30 minutes

9/8/13=Page 1 to Page 17-30 minutes

This is Water

A person's perspective on things, could change their entire life. After watching the video, "This is Water," I learned a couple of things. First, is that choosing is very important to fully understand. You have to male conscious decisions, and you have to know what to think about. Its hard to explain, but these decisions are going to come up every day, and if you make the wrong decisions, your going to be infuriated.That is what life is about; making the right decisions. A person may think that other people get in the way of your choosing and thinking, but you never know what that person may be going through. 

This leads to my next point, which is to always assume that any person that gets in the way of you thinking, is in a worse place than you. You never know if the women holding up the line, screaming a her kid is battling cancer or just lost her job. It's not likely that is the case, but it's not impossible. If a person thinks and chooses like this, then they will achieve anything. Anybody can have the ability to really think, and it is so helpful in life.

Reading Response 3

Ali and Torey now have Christopher's diary, which gives them a lot more evidence. They were looking through the diary and found Isabelle's phone number, so they called it and left a voicemail. Isabelle was Chris' old girlfriend. The next day at school, Ali, Torey, and Bo tried to act normal until Chief Bowen walked up to them. Chief Bowen wanted to talk about the phone call, but Bo said that he didn't make the phone call, then Mrs. Creed started to yell at Bo. Torey tried to make things better by telling chief Bowen that he made the phone call, but he didn't believe Torey. Mrs. Creed brought Ali and Torey into her office and asked them what they thought about Christopher. Torey and Ali both said that he was different, because he would never go out with anybody or anything. Mrs. Creed insisted that she let Chris go out. Torey told Mrs. Creed at that moment, that he made the phone call, but she denied it, and continued to blame Bo. Isabelle called Torey and Ali back, and told them that they could come over, so they did. Torey and Ali, approached a messy house, and entered through the back door. When they asked Isabelle about dating Chris, she said that it never happened. One day he asked her to walk on the beach, and he acted like it was a date. So, Isabelle took Christopher to her psychologist aunt, who told him that he would die in the woods. Lately in this book I have noticed that if people do not have the right answer as to what happened, then they make up something that could hurt other people.
 Torey and Ali went to her aunt, and her aunt said that it is true. The next day, Torey and Ali went into the woods. They were freaked out because of what Isabelle's aunt said, but were looking for Creed's body. Torey heard a scream, and saw Ali almost get crushed by two rocks. Torey looked underneath the rocks, and found Chris laminated treasure map, so they left the woods. Alex wanted to meet Torey in the woods the next day. When they talked, all Torey did was fight with Alex and Renee. Alex left Torey in the woods, and he found a body. A that moment, a rock fell on his leg, and was having emotional trauma, and was in the hospital. The doctors tried to get him to eat and talk, but they didn't have any success. Torey's mom came in and talked to him about the body. She said that it was Bob Haines body, and that Torey is suffering a broken leg and trauma. Alex and Renee have to learn to control themselves. Renee told the police on Torey because he was friends with Bo. Bo told everyone in town that Renee's dad had affairs with a lot of people. So instead of trying to work things out, Renee gets mad, and blames everything on Torey.

8/29- 30 minutes-Pages 150 to 169
8/31-60 minutes-Pages 170 to 211
9/1-30 minutes-Pages 212 to 232